"To send light into the darkness of men's hearts – such is the duty of the artist." — Robert Schumann

Roger and Me (no, not the movie)

Maybe I should have written this blog entry yesterday, but reflecting for one day on the euphoria of the moment has given me more perspective on the matter, perspective that I lacked yesterday. After all, didn’t Wordsworth describe poetry as “emotion recollected in tranquility” in his Preface to Lyrical Ballads (see paragraph 26)? I think the same can be said for other forms of literature, of art, as well.

Who knew that putting my novel aside for a week (as mentioned in my previous entry) would fire up my creative juices on my blog? Yet that was but one catalyst. The other was praise. Praise from none other than Roger Ebert.

I have followed Ebert’s blog the longest of any of the blogs I read on a regular basis, though I’ve only commented on it a handful of times. I haven’t commented more because I either have had nothing to say, or because other people’s comments say all I have wanted to say, and then some. Since Ebert’s comment about my blog, however, I’ve realized two things:

1.) I feel more like I’m part of an online community now. His blog on blogs (where he replies to my comment, nineteen down from the top, which I’ve posted under my real name) made me not only notice the names of people who scatter comments throughout his blogs, but feel CONNECTED to them, since they are indulging in their passions in a way similar to my own (and, of course, now I can check out and comment on their blogs, and vice versa). I have linked to two of the blogs he mentions since yesterday, one by a thirteen-year-old who writes better film reviews than some professional reviewers I’ve read (not Ebert, of course ;-)), and a Canadian woman who writes such gorgeous, giving prose that it makes my writing look like feeble attempts by a chimpanzee. Actually, that’s going a bit too far, but she’s very good.

2.) I feel like my blog matters. Of course, my friends have left comments from time to time, which also validate this blog, as have other people whom I don’t know, but to have a Pulitzer-Prize winning critic tell me that, if only I had commented on one of the last few blogs he had posted, he would have included my blog IN HIS BLOG, well, that’s a whole new level of validation. Wonderful, surreal, and just plain awesome. Suffice it to say, from now on, I will be commenting on his blog (and others) more often.